Roberts Eric

(Bearbeiten)

Biografie:
abgestürzt an der Annapurna (Nepal)

Roberts Eric, * Nordwales, später London,später Schottland, + Annapurna
Der hervoragende,bekannte schottischer Alpinist Eric Roberts wurde in Nordwales geboren. Er studierte am Mill Hill und am King's College in London. Er hatte einen walisischen Vater und eine schwedische Mutter, die ihn in die Alpen eingeführt hatte.
Eric Roberts war im Jahre 1966 noch nicht 21 Jahre alt und schon ein Phänomen. Er hatte er mehr Gipfel erreicht, als die meisten britischen Kletterer in ihrem Leben erhofften. Er hatte über 1100 Gipfel in den Alpen bestiegen.
Im März 1966 durchquerte er die Alpen mit Skiern von Chamonix bis Saas Fee. Er konnte mehrere Gipfel mit Ski zu besteigen, einschließlich einer Überquerung der 4 Gipfel des Grand Combin. In den folgenden Jahren unternahm er Touren normalerweise mit Ski. Eine der denkwürdigsten war eine 5-tägige Überschreitung des abgelegenen Irghil M'Goun im Atlas unter sehr arktischen Bedingungen.
Oft allein oder mit zufälligen Begleitern arbeitete er sich als Teenager systematisch durch die Ostalpen. Vor seinem 20. Lebensjahr hatte er sich den größeren Gipfeln der Westalpen zugewandt.
Er hatte mit geeigneten Führern mehrere D- und TD-Anstiege absolviert. In seinen frühen zwanzigern Jahren, während er in den Alpen aktiv war, bestieg er auch darüber hinaus in Griechenland (Olymp), Türkei (Ararat), im Iran (Demavend), im Atlas (alle Hauptgipfel) und in Ostafrika (dito), im Hindukusch (Noshaq), normalerweise auf dem normalen Weg, auf die Gipfel. Im Jahr 1977 stand er auf dem Nanda Devi, 1979 versuchte er die Annapurna zu besteigen. Nach einem fünftägigen Sturm, als ihr Lager durch eine Monsterlawine verschüttet wurde,kam er mit zwei Amerikanern ums Leben. Einer seiner Begleiter war Gil Harder, mit dem er Noshaq und Nanda Devi bestiegen hatte.
Auch einige Führer (Stubaier Alpen,Haute Route, Glockner, Zillertal und Korsika) konnte er veröffentlichen. Er lieferte das Manuskript für eine neue Arbeit über Welzenbach, die 1980 veröffentlicht werden sollte.
Wie Welzenbach war er erst 33 Jahre alt, als er starb.
1966 Skibeg.Haute Route über Plateau du Couloir, (Montblancgebiet/Walliser Alpen)
1966 Skiüberschr. 4 Gipfel des Grand Combin, (Walliser Alpen)
1977 Best.Nanda Devi,7816m, (Garhwal-Himalaya,Indien)
Best.Noshaq,7492m, (Hindukusch-Gebirge,Afghanistan/Pakistan)
Best.Olymp,2918m, (Griechenland)
Best.Ararat,5137m, (Türkei)
Best.Demavend,5609m, (Elbursgebirge,Iran)
Best.alle Hauptgipfel im Atlasgebirge (Toubkal)?,4167m, (Nordafrika)
Überschr.Irghil M'Goun, (Atlasgebirge)
Gerd Schauer, Isny im Allgäu

Quelle: ÖAV Mitteilungen 1979, Seite 230

Eric Roberts
One spring evening in 1966 I found myself in the warm fug of Fraulein Biner's in Zermatt, rather reluctantly sharing a table with a crowd of noisy Austrians. Directly opposite me sat another Briton, but such was the fluency of his German that I did not discover this for some lime.
Once he had lapsed into English, I soon realized that this lean youth, not yet 21, was something of a phenomenon. At an age when most of us were still looking forward to our first Alpine season, he had bagged more peaks than most British climbers hope for in a lifetime.
We arranged to meet in Chamonix the following March. Eight days later we were in Saas Fee having completed the High Level Route via the Plateau du Couloir, outflanking Zermatt and its clanking machinery for reasons which I took to be aesthetic purity but which I now realize were largely economy on Eric's part: as a student, he had to stretch his pocket money a long way. We went on to do soille peaks with ski, including a traverse of the 4 tops of the Grand Combin. During subsequent years we made other trips together, usually with ski but one of the most memorable was a splendid 5-day crossing on foot of the remote Irghil M'Goun, in the Atlas, in very arctic conditions.
On such trips, whatever the weather and however strenuous the tracking in deep snow,
Eric was unstoppable.
His mountaineering had a certain fin-de-siecle character. Born in N Wales, reared within earshot of the Spurs' football ground where in season he spent his Saturday afternoons, educated at Mill Hill and King's College, London, Eric had a Welsh father, and a Swedish mother who introduced him to the Alps before his eleven-plus and thereafter encouraged him to spend his vacations there. Eric needed no encouragement. Often alone or with chance companions he spent his teens systematically working his way through the Eastern Alps. Before the age of 20 he had turned his attention to the bigger peaks of the Western Alps. Yet at no time did he take part in the domestic climbing scene. His experience of British rock climbing was negligible. He made no special effort to get fit for the Alps. Like the Victorians, he had no need: with 3 months or more of Alpine holiday he could well afford a week or 2 for 'training' excursions.
This approach had its drawbacks. He was out of his depth on technical ground, though, with suitable leaders, he had done several D, and TD, climbs. His rope management was disconcertingly casual. On ice, he was indifferent to the finer points of stepcutting or belaying. On skis, it was all too obvious that he was self-taught. His climbing and his ski-ing, however, made up in speed and sureness what they lacked in elegance.
In his early twenties, while remaining active in the Alps, he began also to branch out beyond, to Greece (Olympus), Turkey (Ararat), Iran (Demavend), the Atlas (all the main peaks), East Africa (ditto), the Hindu Kush (Noshaq), usually by the ordinary route on peaks straightforward enough, but each trip seemed to take him further afield and, inevitably, higher. In 1977, Nanda Devi. In 1979 Annapurna. Where next, one wondered. But no, for he was still some 150001 from the summit of Annapurna, sitting-out a five-day storm with 2 Americans, when their camp was erased by the windblast from a monster avalanche. One of his companions was Gil Harder, with whom he had climbed Noshaq and Nanda Devi.
Though Eric had climbed over 1100 peaks in the Alps, let alone other areas, he was no tiger, nor was he a pioneer. No new route bears his name. He might now fade into obscurity, but for one thing. His enthusiasm, his colossal breadth of experience, his energy and stamina, an excellent memory for topographical detail, and the ability to work far into the night, combined to produce a natural guidebook writer of extraordinary promise. West Col were not slow to appreciate this, and a fruitful partnership developed. His guide to the Stubai was published when he was 26, followed a year later by a guide to the High Level Route. Then. came the .Glockner. Guides to the Zillertal and Corsica were in hand and there were plans for many more. On his way out to Annapurna he delivered the manuscript for a new work on Welzenbach, which is to be published in 1980.
Like Welzenbach, he was only 33 when he died. That he was able to achieve so much is due in part to an equally remarkable person, his wife Ann, who cheerfully managed, more or less single-handed, their business, their home, and their small son, during Eric's long absences in the hills and in the sanctuary of his study. .
Donald Mill
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 85, 1980, Seite 265-266


Geboren am:
1946
Gestorben am:
19.09.1979